The BBC has eventually released an update to its hugely popular TV catch up app, BBC iPlayer. BBC iPlayer is only available for UK customers who pay their license fees and it offers a full 7 day catch up service of all BBC TV and radio programs. The update to BBC iPlayer, finally brings retina quality video for the new third generation iPad and a few more improvements too.

You asked for better playback so we've improved the video performance.
Better accessibility, including more Voice Over controls to make it even easier to enjoy BBC iPlayer's fantastic content.
Beautiful retina graphics for the new iPad.
Bug fixes and general tidying, so you'll notice even smoother performance.

The BBC iPlayer app gives you access to all of the previous seven days of BBC TV programs as well as all radio programs too. You can stream the content over 3G or WiFi and even use AirPlay to send the content to your Apple TV.

As it stands, the update only covers the UK version of the app and not the iPlayer Global app which covers Canada and eleven European countries. We would assume that an update to the BBC iPlayer Global app won't be that far behind. Unfortunately, there is still no news on the iPlayer Global app being released in the U.S. We can only assume that it is being held up due to licensing issues or huge resistance from the American TV networks who don’t want any more competition in an already highly competitive market place.

If you are in the UK and want to grab the free update to BBC iPlayer, you can get it from the App Store via the link below. If you give it a whirl, let us know if you notice the improvements with retina video.